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This is interesting. Gingrich has now gone on record against Paul Ryan's proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system designed not to keep pace with inflation, on the grounds that it is too radical a change, and reiterates his support for an individual mandate. That's two kicks to the balls of the movement right, as the splutters from NRO and Hot Air illustrate. May I just point out that vast parts of the Obama health reform were once conservative orthodoxy (healthcare exchanges, for example, and building on the private industry), just as cap and trade was once conservative orthodoxy.
Nonetheless, it's a sign that Newt may surprise this campaign season, either because he fears that the current GOP strategy reminds him a little scarily of what he once went through or because he's trying to win elderly primary voters, or because he just thinks Ryan's plan for Medicare really is too extreme a measure, given where America now is.
For the record, I'm ending up in a similar position. I fervently believe we need to cut entitlement spending, but asking, say, an 80 year old to figure out which insurance plan she wants with her voucher does not seem practicable or humane to me. I also think there is something unconservative about up-ending what is, pace George Will, a settled part of American life. (By the way, that is now the conservative case for retaining Roe vs Wade, however awful its constitutional over-reach.)
I guess Ryan helped me look into the abyss of simply cutting grandma off when her voucher reaches its limit, and I want a more humane, moderate and measured way to cut costs.
The Dish 